Justin Carroll celebrates in Victory Lane on the heels of his first career Late Model victory. (Photo: Jim Arend)

Hampton, VA – Danny Edwards Jr. was the man to beat earlier in the afternoon at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway when posted the fastest time during qualifying. Matter of fact, it was an all Edwards front row after Danny’s 15.670-second (90.747 MPH) lap was 0.001 seconds faster to steal the top spot from his brother Greg. Tyler Hughes – making his return to Langley Speedway in 2018 – overcame ignition issues on pit road to qualify third. Connor Hall and Brenden Queen rounded out the fastest five starters.

As usual, with twin features, the most exciting portion of the first race was on the initial start as drivers fought for real estate. Danny Edwards Jr., however, wanted nothing to do with any of that and drove away with the lead. Behind him, it was a full-on battle for position with Queen ultimately taking the second position while Nick Smith, Connor Hall, and Mark Wertz all worked to get around Tyler Hughes. Once everyone got settled down and settled into position, it was smooth sailing up front and no one had anything for Danny. The victory was Edwards first of 2018 and also his first since 2015. Connor Hall would cross the stripe in the second position followed by Brenden Queen, Mark Wertz, Justin Carroll, Tyler Hughes, Greg Edwards, and Nick Smith.

“The guys on this race team have been working awfully hard,” Edwards said in victory lane. “Putting a lot of time in the shop trying to figure things out after the big wreck we had at the Hamlin event. That was a good run for us, ironic to win on this Father’s Day weekend, this is the first time I’ve won that my father wasn’t here with me. Been a bit of a dry spell, hopefully, will get some more.”

Per the NASCAR rulebook, when a facility runs twins features, no less than eight cars will be inverted for the second race. As mentioned above, this should have benefited Nick Smith the most. However, a tire change between races would send him to the rear of the field moving the entire inside row up one. This allowed Tyler Hughes to start on the pole and an exciting race number two was ready to go.

Greg Edwards, however, looked to have other plans for the race as he powered his way to the lead down the backstretch using the outside groove. Behind them, it was a different story and a completely different feel to the race as guys were a bit more aggressive this go around. As everyone fought for their piece of the track last weeks winner Mark Wertz was able to catch and drive past Edwards to take the race lead on lap nine and opened up a rather large lead rather quickly.

Next car in the field that was on the move up was Williamsburg native Justin Carroll. With thirty laps completed Carroll was able to run down and passed Greg for the second position and set his sights on the race lead. Thomas Marks had done the same with Tyler Hughes leaving him to deal with the likes of Nick Smith and that is when things got ugly. Smith and Hughes were racing hard for position when the two made contact going through turn three. Both drivers nights were over after their cars received rather extensive damage and neither two happy with each other.

The caution allowed for the field to catch up to Wertz, who was enjoying over a two-second lead at the time and give drivers the ability to take the cone, which Justin Carroll did. When the green was displayed again Wertz did an amazing job taking over the lead while Carroll fell in line and on the hunt. With eleven laps to go Carroll was finally able to make the pass to take the lead. Carroll would go on to lead those final eleven laps en route to his first career Late Model Stock victory.

“This is unreal, man,” Carroll said after the win. “I’ve never won a race before, this is crazy and it’s Father’s Day. I’d like to thank my dad, my crew, this is unreal. I just did the same thing every lap, my crew chief has been preaching to me all year to save my stuff. We’ve been close every week here, close in the K&N car, man this is unreal!”

Eleven Super Trucks, a season-high, took the green flag for their 25-lap feature. Dustin Mullins continued to show speed in qualifying when he took the pole position and ran off with the lead when the green flag was displayed. Jacob Carr would again get off to a slow start before settling in and running down the leader. With only three laps to go, Carr would get around Mullins and drive to his first victory of the year. Keith Wheeler, Rick Poust, and Ryan Huff completed the top five.